Do you know that most cases of heart attack in America happen on monday,
and between 8 AM and 9 AM when people are getting ready to go to work?
I am quite sure you've never heard of this, but that is unfortunately true.
We may scientifically tend to attribute many causes to the occurrence of heart attack, namely age, angina, blood cholesterol, diabetes, diet, gene, physical inactivity and smoking just to mention a few, that is correct. But these are also known as contributing factors.
I usually take it to the street or wherever i engage a conversation with people going to work on monday morning. It strikes me funny how people really feel that specific moment of the week, The collective response is " it's Monday". The fact is most people who work Monday to Friday hate Monday, simply it's the begining day of the week , they have a whole week ahead of them.
The problem is, that feeling triggers more and more secretion of cortisol, which is the stress hormones, when built up over time can cause a heart attack.
Now, why many people hate Monday?
The truth is, it is not Monday that they hate, it is their JOB.
many people do jobs they don't like.
What is the Monday malady solution?
Do what you like and love and you will be able to do it seven days a week with a smile on your face.
For the time being, will teach you in my next blog how you can surmount the negative feeling and save yourself from the risk of heart attack even if you seem to have no choice as to the matter of the type of job you can do.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Friday, November 23, 2012
No one is successful or are they?
The idea of success has always been misconstrued and misinterpreted. There are two dimensions in the concept of success.
On the one hand, there is the type of success considered by the society. This type is mostly attributed to fame and wealth, therefore, is considered successful anyone who achieves certain popularity, namely the sport and movie celebrities, the politicians and others, also anyone who possesses certain wealth. To make a point, i conducted a survey among friends and family members as to name one or two successful individuals that come quickly in mind. The result was spot on, almost all mentioned the president( of the United States) and or a celebrity name. This definition of success by the society is not new in modern time, but has tremendously evolved in adaptation to the advancement of technology and the means of communication. In primitive age and in some traditional societies, successful person was the chief of tribe and the sage namely the elderly because they possessed wisdom and they were well respected.
This type of success, unfornatunate doesn't always guarantee the attainment of life fulfillment
On the other hand, there is the type of success that is personal . This is a type that you and i attain when we achieve a specific goal, when we reach a treshold of a milestone longing. This could be a well functoning relationship with spouse, family, with friends, it maybe the restoration of one's health after a tough and long battle against a grave disease, it could also imply obtaining a good job or being rich, i might also add the fact to impact many people's lives. The idea is, at some point in their life, everyone experiences success, they can attribute any definition of success at whatever situation is applicable to themselves. The dictionary defines success as a favorable or prosperous outcome of an attempt or endeavor. In the light of this definition we should consider ourselves successful in one way or another, but we savour any favorable endeavor only temporarilly and after that we completely forget that something of significance even happened to us.
Why are we so entangled with the idea of looking for success in wealth and fame? it turns out that it is not completely of our doing, we live in the society where individual character and sentiments are deeply buried under the dictatorship of the great leviathan.
In order to stay grounded and live a very fulfilling live, we must begin where we are, by considering every simple but significant thing we accomplish in life, recongnizing its value and place of importance in our life and savour them as long as we can. To do this is quite simple; let's be aware and alert, and also consciencious of every journey we embark, of every fight we engage, of every rubicon we reach. let's value the simple thing that otherwise would have no value.
Let's enjoy the moment.
On the one hand, there is the type of success considered by the society. This type is mostly attributed to fame and wealth, therefore, is considered successful anyone who achieves certain popularity, namely the sport and movie celebrities, the politicians and others, also anyone who possesses certain wealth. To make a point, i conducted a survey among friends and family members as to name one or two successful individuals that come quickly in mind. The result was spot on, almost all mentioned the president( of the United States) and or a celebrity name. This definition of success by the society is not new in modern time, but has tremendously evolved in adaptation to the advancement of technology and the means of communication. In primitive age and in some traditional societies, successful person was the chief of tribe and the sage namely the elderly because they possessed wisdom and they were well respected.
This type of success, unfornatunate doesn't always guarantee the attainment of life fulfillment
On the other hand, there is the type of success that is personal . This is a type that you and i attain when we achieve a specific goal, when we reach a treshold of a milestone longing. This could be a well functoning relationship with spouse, family, with friends, it maybe the restoration of one's health after a tough and long battle against a grave disease, it could also imply obtaining a good job or being rich, i might also add the fact to impact many people's lives. The idea is, at some point in their life, everyone experiences success, they can attribute any definition of success at whatever situation is applicable to themselves. The dictionary defines success as a favorable or prosperous outcome of an attempt or endeavor. In the light of this definition we should consider ourselves successful in one way or another, but we savour any favorable endeavor only temporarilly and after that we completely forget that something of significance even happened to us.
Why are we so entangled with the idea of looking for success in wealth and fame? it turns out that it is not completely of our doing, we live in the society where individual character and sentiments are deeply buried under the dictatorship of the great leviathan.
In order to stay grounded and live a very fulfilling live, we must begin where we are, by considering every simple but significant thing we accomplish in life, recongnizing its value and place of importance in our life and savour them as long as we can. To do this is quite simple; let's be aware and alert, and also consciencious of every journey we embark, of every fight we engage, of every rubicon we reach. let's value the simple thing that otherwise would have no value.
Let's enjoy the moment.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
What makes you happy?
Here is the challenge. If you want to see a living proof of a happy person, not a camera- induced happiness, i mean a genuinly authentic one characterized by the overpowering smile that no matter what negative mood has taken reign over you, would deeply impact you, then you have to meet me. One of the element of the definition of my person is that of happiness, courtesy of 90% of those who know me or who ever come in contact with me.
This brings us to ask what is the definition of happiness anyway. According to wikipedia, happiness is the mental or emotional state of well being characterized by pleasant emotions raging from contentment to intense joy. But at what moment one can claim to be happy .Some people would say that their happiness is linked to money or any desired material possession, others believe that happiness is a choice, that we choose to be happy or not, another category would argue that one is capable of reaching happiness through faith in the Almighty God. No matter where you can find happiness, it it important to understand that it is not a mere button that you press and there ,you are happy. In fact it is quite considered at some point as an ideal to pursuit This can be easily verified by the fact that there are many wealthy and famous personalities who are proof that money doesn't bring happiness, or even the most fervent believers who are so negative they can enter a dark room and grow. Although anyone has a liberty to define happiness the way it can apply to them, there are certain steps or approaches you can take to really come to term with the idea of happiness.
There is a number of questions you can ask yourself such as WHO I REALLY AM and WHO I WANT TO BECOME. The answers of these questions helped me choose a direction of my life from where i was. Once i used a number of approaches to would lead me to happiness, i was able to put my life in auto pilot so that even in the middle of ravaging storm, i remain on top of my game and even impact others in many ways.
Few years ago i was working as a cashier in a retail store, the manager did what has never been done in the history of that company. He had had my smiling pictures posted everywhere in the store written on the bottom was 'Happiness is contagious". To make matter interesting, many customers took copies of my picture with them. I was so happy to be happy. This experience showed me how i was able to touch people with my happy attitude(smile). It was and it is really contagious. Imagine the feeling you have in changing people's mood with a simple smile. The most rewarding feeling we possess in life is when we help someone else.
To me , my happiness is no longer for my own good alone, it is also therapeudic for others
To be who i am today, i have accomplished some steps to get there and any one else can use the same approach to get there too .
Freedom; Realizing that who i am today is a result of the many choices tha i made in the past, made me recognize that i am free to give my life any direction i choose to. For example i am free to respond to any circustances that happen to me, i can choose to wallow, complaint, blame or i can choose to see what is happenig to me as an opportunity and exploit it.
Hope: To me, hoping that tomorrow is going to be better makes me happy today
Emotional recall; When things go awry and we find ourselves drifting away, gasping for a moment of good feeling, we can do the following; Think of a past positive experience, sit quietly and remember the circumstances, where you were, who else was there,what time it was, the sound, the smell and concentrate of what happened and how you felt, feel it as though it was happening again. you will realize that you are enjoying the moment and therefore you become happy at that moment.
This brings us to ask what is the definition of happiness anyway. According to wikipedia, happiness is the mental or emotional state of well being characterized by pleasant emotions raging from contentment to intense joy. But at what moment one can claim to be happy .Some people would say that their happiness is linked to money or any desired material possession, others believe that happiness is a choice, that we choose to be happy or not, another category would argue that one is capable of reaching happiness through faith in the Almighty God. No matter where you can find happiness, it it important to understand that it is not a mere button that you press and there ,you are happy. In fact it is quite considered at some point as an ideal to pursuit This can be easily verified by the fact that there are many wealthy and famous personalities who are proof that money doesn't bring happiness, or even the most fervent believers who are so negative they can enter a dark room and grow. Although anyone has a liberty to define happiness the way it can apply to them, there are certain steps or approaches you can take to really come to term with the idea of happiness.
There is a number of questions you can ask yourself such as WHO I REALLY AM and WHO I WANT TO BECOME. The answers of these questions helped me choose a direction of my life from where i was. Once i used a number of approaches to would lead me to happiness, i was able to put my life in auto pilot so that even in the middle of ravaging storm, i remain on top of my game and even impact others in many ways.
Few years ago i was working as a cashier in a retail store, the manager did what has never been done in the history of that company. He had had my smiling pictures posted everywhere in the store written on the bottom was 'Happiness is contagious". To make matter interesting, many customers took copies of my picture with them. I was so happy to be happy. This experience showed me how i was able to touch people with my happy attitude(smile). It was and it is really contagious. Imagine the feeling you have in changing people's mood with a simple smile. The most rewarding feeling we possess in life is when we help someone else.
To me , my happiness is no longer for my own good alone, it is also therapeudic for others
To be who i am today, i have accomplished some steps to get there and any one else can use the same approach to get there too .
Freedom; Realizing that who i am today is a result of the many choices tha i made in the past, made me recognize that i am free to give my life any direction i choose to. For example i am free to respond to any circustances that happen to me, i can choose to wallow, complaint, blame or i can choose to see what is happenig to me as an opportunity and exploit it.
Hope: To me, hoping that tomorrow is going to be better makes me happy today
Emotional recall; When things go awry and we find ourselves drifting away, gasping for a moment of good feeling, we can do the following; Think of a past positive experience, sit quietly and remember the circumstances, where you were, who else was there,what time it was, the sound, the smell and concentrate of what happened and how you felt, feel it as though it was happening again. you will realize that you are enjoying the moment and therefore you become happy at that moment.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Hope in the unseen
Scientists hate this term of hope and even more so the expression " hope in the unseen", for good reason if you pretend to be unhuman. We know well the scientific method implies observation, experimentation plus hypothesis and conclusion from the great engenuity of Louis Pasteur. To have hope in the unseen doessn't make the scientific equation.
Now let's see how even the purists of all scientists inadvertently have hope at every area of their scientific work....
Hope can be defined as an emotional state which promotes the belief in the positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life, The point i want to bring out is that hope is part of the states of our mind and that the proper chaneling of this instance of mind can be the origin of much greatness.
Underneath the concept of hope lies the notion of belief which has always been a factor of human survival and at the basis of any succesful endeavour. The fact is we all believe in something and that is absolutely important in any decision making process; for example if i decide to go to school, it is because i come to believe that it would provide me a decent job in the future, it is the same way we choose among two or more cadidates the one we believe would represent our best interest well. It wasn't at random that Barack Obama, in the run for the highest office in 2008 used the slogan "HOPE",and the results spoke for themselves. What happened was the term aligned with the natural aspiration of the people at the moment that was golden.
The idea is one bets on something unsure, uncertain , something that is not tangible. My position is not so much about what happens after hope as to a result of a decision made , but rather what takes place at the moment one hopes, that when the magic appears. the feeling that it creates is so positive ,it is energy, vigor and resilience . That moment of anticipation of a desirable goal is a catalyst of any invention and adventure. Hope can culturally change the nature of things even momenterally. It unites people especially in time of tragedy. When september eleven happened , everybody from all works of life come together as one and hope for a strong and better America. Even just a simple fact of hoping that tomorrow will be better makes today interestingly good to some degree. I am talking about the fact that no situation is permanent. No matter what you are going through or no matter how bad the situation we are in may be, there a lingering belief that it would not last forever.
Also the way human operates is anchored by what we know, see, hear or experience. it triggers our belief system. When we know that maybe someone else has been in the same situation and has gotten better it feeds even more the hope we have in getting better too.
Now let's see how even the purists of all scientists inadvertently have hope at every area of their scientific work....
Hope can be defined as an emotional state which promotes the belief in the positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life, The point i want to bring out is that hope is part of the states of our mind and that the proper chaneling of this instance of mind can be the origin of much greatness.
Underneath the concept of hope lies the notion of belief which has always been a factor of human survival and at the basis of any succesful endeavour. The fact is we all believe in something and that is absolutely important in any decision making process; for example if i decide to go to school, it is because i come to believe that it would provide me a decent job in the future, it is the same way we choose among two or more cadidates the one we believe would represent our best interest well. It wasn't at random that Barack Obama, in the run for the highest office in 2008 used the slogan "HOPE",and the results spoke for themselves. What happened was the term aligned with the natural aspiration of the people at the moment that was golden.
The idea is one bets on something unsure, uncertain , something that is not tangible. My position is not so much about what happens after hope as to a result of a decision made , but rather what takes place at the moment one hopes, that when the magic appears. the feeling that it creates is so positive ,it is energy, vigor and resilience . That moment of anticipation of a desirable goal is a catalyst of any invention and adventure. Hope can culturally change the nature of things even momenterally. It unites people especially in time of tragedy. When september eleven happened , everybody from all works of life come together as one and hope for a strong and better America. Even just a simple fact of hoping that tomorrow will be better makes today interestingly good to some degree. I am talking about the fact that no situation is permanent. No matter what you are going through or no matter how bad the situation we are in may be, there a lingering belief that it would not last forever.
Also the way human operates is anchored by what we know, see, hear or experience. it triggers our belief system. When we know that maybe someone else has been in the same situation and has gotten better it feeds even more the hope we have in getting better too.
Friday, November 2, 2012
The freedom that matters
What is freedom? or what is it to be free? We use the term for many reasons in many ways. We often employ it in our daily interraction with others so much as it has lost its rightful meaning. We use it sometimes as a safety valve, yet we don't really practice freedom.
The concept of freedom is as old as the human existence. it has always been at the paramount of all struggles and somehow the justification of much violence. history has shown to illustrate the different moments when freedom has been the reason for war, battle, fight and insurrection. There are always two camps involve in this movements; the oppressors and the oppressed, the masters and the slaves, the authority and the citizens just to name the few important groups. The collectivity of individuals come together to claim what they consider being given by God and inherent to the being. The founding Fathers thought better to include this inalienable human right in the Constitution.
Now the freedom that matters more is the freedom you possess under any given circumstance. It comes down to liberty. It is a sort of liberty one has when everything else is taken away. Even if you are part of the group of oppressed, slaves or the citizens, there are still a number of things you can do or to put it literally you have a liberty to chose among many options. For example living is a choice, same as eating or breathing,
What is the point here?What we are today is the result of the many choices we made in the past. Whether we are where we wanted to be or not, it is because we freely made some choices that were conducive to where we are now. there are almost always different alternatives to every situation, each one bearing its consequences .
But the good new is we still possess that freedom to change our situation around. It is imposible to go back in time to chance any choice made, it is history. we can revisite it, we can learn from it, most importantly it is better to learn not to look at today through the lens of yesterday, which makes the promise of tomorrow all the more magical. It is in our reach to change the course of our lives today by making decisions and choices different than those that led us here today. It is possible to choose where we think will be a better direction for our future, and this can be done whether the government in power is democratic or republican or independant, even if the country is in great recession or deep depression. Bottom line is we have the power(freedom) to influence the remaining years of our lives, jim Rohn puts it this way, the same wind blows in us all , it is up to us to set sail right.
The concept of freedom is as old as the human existence. it has always been at the paramount of all struggles and somehow the justification of much violence. history has shown to illustrate the different moments when freedom has been the reason for war, battle, fight and insurrection. There are always two camps involve in this movements; the oppressors and the oppressed, the masters and the slaves, the authority and the citizens just to name the few important groups. The collectivity of individuals come together to claim what they consider being given by God and inherent to the being. The founding Fathers thought better to include this inalienable human right in the Constitution.
Now the freedom that matters more is the freedom you possess under any given circumstance. It comes down to liberty. It is a sort of liberty one has when everything else is taken away. Even if you are part of the group of oppressed, slaves or the citizens, there are still a number of things you can do or to put it literally you have a liberty to chose among many options. For example living is a choice, same as eating or breathing,
What is the point here?What we are today is the result of the many choices we made in the past. Whether we are where we wanted to be or not, it is because we freely made some choices that were conducive to where we are now. there are almost always different alternatives to every situation, each one bearing its consequences .
But the good new is we still possess that freedom to change our situation around. It is imposible to go back in time to chance any choice made, it is history. we can revisite it, we can learn from it, most importantly it is better to learn not to look at today through the lens of yesterday, which makes the promise of tomorrow all the more magical. It is in our reach to change the course of our lives today by making decisions and choices different than those that led us here today. It is possible to choose where we think will be a better direction for our future, and this can be done whether the government in power is democratic or republican or independant, even if the country is in great recession or deep depression. Bottom line is we have the power(freedom) to influence the remaining years of our lives, jim Rohn puts it this way, the same wind blows in us all , it is up to us to set sail right.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)